India choose to bat; Axar Patel, Ishan Kishan, Varun Chakravarthy return

Toss India selected to bat vs New Zealand

Of their final T20I earlier than the T20 World Cup, India, having already sealed the sequence win, selected to check themselves by batting first after profitable the toss. Suryakumar Yadav, their captain, mentioned he needed to place the bowlers by way of the rigours of defending a complete in what are anticipated to be dewy circumstances in Thiruvananthapuram.

Each groups rang within the modifications. India introduced again Ishan Kishan – who missed the fourth T20I with a niggle – Axar Patel and Varun Chakravarthy, and overlooked Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravi Bishnoi. This – aside from the absence of Tilak Varma, who is anticipated to return from damage in time for the World Cup warm-ups – is kind of India’s first-choice T20I XI.

New Zealand made 4 modifications. Finn Allen, recent from his star flip in Perth Scorchers’ BBL title run because the event’s high run-getter, performs his first sport for his nationwide staff since March 2025. Additionally in have been middle-order batter Bevon Jacobs and seamers Kyle Jamieson and Lockie Ferguson. Ferguson, who, like Allen, is on an off-the-cuff contract with NZC, is taking part in his first sport for New Zealand since November 2024.

Devon Conway, Mark Chapman, Zak Foulkes and Matt Henry are out, with Henry – who’s nursing a niggle – out for “precautionary” causes based on captain Mitchell Santner.

India: 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Sanju Samson (wk), 3 Ishan Kishan, 4 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 5 Rinku Singh, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Shivam Dube, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Jasprit Bumrah

New Zealand: 1 Tim Seifert (wk), 2 Finn Allen, 3 Rachin Ravindra, 4 Glenn Phillips, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Bevon Jacobs, 7 Mitchell Santner (capt), 8 Kyle Jamieson, 9 Ish Sodhi, 10 Lockie Ferguson, 11 Jacob Duffy